Prisoners (1929)
May 18, 1929Release Date
Prisoners (1929)
May 18, 1929Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
Corinne Griffith
Riza Riga
Ian Keith
Nicholas Cathy
Otto Matieson
Sebfi
Baron Hesse
Kore
Julanne Johnston
Lenke
Anne Schaefer
Aunt Maria
Bela Lugosi
Brottos--Nightclub Owner
Charles Clary
Warden Rimmer
Media.
Details.
Wiki.
Prisoners is a 1929 American film produced by Walter Morosco and directed by William Seiter for First National Pictures. The screenplay was written by Forrest Halsey, based on the novel by Ferenc Molnar. Lee Garmes was the cinematographer.
It was released as a part-talking, part-silent feature with Corinne Griffith, James Ford, Bela Lugosi, Ian Keith, and Otto Matiesen. Lugosi, in his first talkie, played Brottos, the owner of a Vienna nightclub. Lugosi was very happy that his first sound film was set in Hungary (where he was born) and that the story was based on a Ferenc Molnar Hungarian novel. While Lugosi was off filming "Prisoners", he was temporarily replaced in the San Francisco "Dracula" stage play by one Frederick Pymm (who normally played Butterworth, the attendant).The relatively short sound segment (most of the film is subtitled) picks up with the climactic trial sequence. Critics stated "Bela Lugosi makes a very European villain", but were disappointed that Griffith's character is sent off to prison at the end of the film while a "cold-blooded murderer (in one of the subplots) is kept from receiving his just punishment". Corinne Griffith (who was married to producer Morosco) later went on to become a movie producer herself, as well as a very successful novelist.